India’s Bharti Airtel posted consolidated group revenues of INR204.22 billion (USD2.79 billion) in the three months ended 30 September 2018, down by 6.2% year-on-year, as domestic revenue dropped 10.9% to INR149.3 billion – including a 7.2% mobile sales fall due to continued competitive pricing pressure – partly offset by a 10.8% rise in Airtel Africa turnover in constant currency terms. Consolidated EBITDA, EBIT and net profit fell y-o-y by 20.7%, 67.3% and 65.4% respectively to INR63.43 billion, INR10.76 billion and INR1.19 billion in July-September 2018, as Airtel fought intense competition amid a fierce tariff war.
Airtel’s reported Indian mobile customer base declined by 2% quarter-on-quarter (although up 14.4% y-o-y) to 329.678 million at end-September 2018, despite mobile data traffic growing by 225% y-o-y driven by its 4G LTE subscribers rising by 132% y-o-y to 65.7 million.
Airtel Africa (consolidating 14 African markets) reported a collective 94.096 million mobile customer base at the end of the quarter, up 3.2% in three months (up 14.9% y-o-y). In USD terms (IFRS reporting standards), ongoing operations at Airtel Africa earned revenues of USD808 million in the quarter ended 30 September, up by 4% y-o-y, with three-month EBITDA climbing 16% to USD299 million, EBIT up 46% at USD193 million and net profit jumping 258% to USD64 million. Airtel Africa’s mobile data traffic was up 53% in the quarter, whilst total Airtel Money customers across its African markets reached 12.9 million.